Some transceiver circuits which are coupled to a coaxial cable have the requirement to provide a constant impedance for the cable at all time to maintain the integrity of the communication system. In addition many times a transceiver of this type is remotely deployed for data gathering and is unattended for long periods of time and, as a consequence, must have a low power consumption. It is not uncommon that such a transceiver is one of a number of like transceivers in a interrelated network which is designed to share the transceiver function with a host of other related electronic functions. A design obstacle that frequently arises is that the various electronic functions might be provided in compact integrated circuits or microminiaturized packages where the heat dissipation problems associated with undue, high power consumption can and do impose severe operational limitations.
A typical, contemporary transceiver operating in the standby mode sinks 110 milliamps from its positive power supply and about 88 milliamps from its negative power supply. Some applications require as 45 amps from their negative supplies for just the transceivers This increased power consumption levels are largely attributed to the design complexity of the contemporary transceivers which also is reflected in a considerably increased cost per unit.
Thus, there is a continuing need in the state of the art for a transceiver improvement that has a low power consumption presenting substantially the same impedance to a coaxial cable during the active and standby modes of the transceiver.